Last kiss
by jadeandsugar
Summary: Zutara. In the Fire Nation's palace, Zuko and Katara must say a last goodbye. Rated T for blood.


**Short and sad. What can I say? I was feeling weird.**

**Disclaimer: Avatar is not mine.**

My ears were ringing, my heart was pounding and my eyes were stinging with unshed tears. I wouldn't cry, not here, not now, I refused to. But the effort of holding back was momentous. I couldn't believe it. A thousand broken thoughts whirled in my head. I was numb. I was insane. I was so many terrible things at once in that moment. I could scarcely stand upright, or even comprehend the sight in front of me. From lips that seemed detached from my body, an unfamiliar voice, so hoarse so scared and trembling, issued forth.

'Zuko…?'

How tentative it sounded! It spelled doom, and yet I stood there dumbly, still doing nothing, even as my eyes took in the sight again and again. There, tossed aside as carelessly as a child might toss aside a toy, in the sprawling halls of the Fire Nation palace, lay the former Prince of the Fire Nation, an arrow protruding from his chest.

A ghastly scream that could hardly have belonged to me sounded, and my paralysis, suddenly cured, disappeared with a wave of unbelievable sorrow and desperation flooded my heart.

'Zuko, Zuko!' I cried. I was at his side in an instant, already tearing the cork from my water skin. When I received no indication of life, I scrabbled desperately to feel his neck, crying out with horror when I felt how blood slicked it was. There were burns all over his body, and his hair was matted and filthy. I could just imagine him, fighting a battalion of trained palace guardsmen before being dispatched by a single arrow.

'Why did you have to play the hero?' I sobbed. 'Why did you go alone?'

The tears I had fought to hold back in my previous state flooded out now. I called his name again, and with a thrill I saw his eyes flutter open, sunken and glazed with delirium.

'Katara? Is… that-?

He trailed off with a cry of pain, and his left arm, apparently uninjured, touched the arrow. He gave another strangled cry and I quickly pressed a hand over his lips.

'Ssh, ssh, Zuko, it's- it's all right, I can heal you, it's nothing…'

But as I pulled the fabric from his body and exposed the wound, dangerously close to his heart, despair gripped me. Tentatively, I tugged it, and he shouted with pain.

'Don't… he breathed painfully. 'The arrows are barbed. It won't come out.'

'I can't just leave it in there!' I shouted. 'I'll have to get it out… I'll get Toph, maybe she can metal-bend it out…'

I jumped up suddenly, irrationally, but Zuko's arm grabbed my wrist.

'No Katara… I can feel it. I'm done. You need to find Aang and fight your way to the throne room. You need to leave me behind.'

'Don't say that. DON'T SAY THAT!! You're not going to die, and I will NEVER leave you behind!'

He smiled, and leaned backwards. 'That's why I've always loved you, Katara. Your fighting spirit. Your fire. Don't you ever lose sight of it Katara.'

'How can I? If you die I know that it will be extinguished!'

Zuko's hand reached up and tangled itself in my hair, and pressed against my cheek. I leaned into him, clutching his arm with both hands.

'Katara, my sweet waterbender,' he murmured. 'Always remember that, no matter what, I will always be a part of you. You will never lose your fire, because I will always be beside you to ignite it.'

I choked, sobbing. 'But you won't be. I'll always be alone!'

He just smiled sadly, and suddenly, we kissed.

It wasn't like any kiss we had ever shared. It wasn't a first kiss, or a second kiss, or a millionth kiss. It was a last kiss, one that spoke of all our hopes and dreams, all our aspirations. The family we would never be, the children we would never bear. It was beautiful and surreal, and at the same time it bespoke an eternity of nothingness and sorrow.

His lips parted from mine, and just as he leaned back he spoke, for the last time.

'_I love you, Katara.'_

Then, just like a candle blown out in the wind, he was gone, and all the poets in the world could not have described the grief I was left with.

**...No comment**


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